Cultural differences in children's birthday parties.

[TheNameIsDickDarlington]

I was recently at a child's birthday party where one of the mums questioned the classic cheese and pineapple on a stick birthday snack. Apparently, she had never seen this before.

This led me to think about children's birthday parties and how much of what I would consider a traditional child's party is specifically cultural to England (which is where I have always lived). Do most countries have the typical Bouncy castle in a hall and buffet food type kids parties or does each country have its own version of that?

We did cheese and pineapple on sticks for one of the dc's parties when they were about 6, mostly because I like it. The children went absolutely mad for it, and my dream of having tonnes to eat at home in peace rapidly disappeared down 20 excited throats.
We'd done a large tin of pineapple and ended up nipping out to Sainsburys, luckily next door, and got two more tins, more cocktail sticks and cheese and they devoured those too. We had chocolate fingers left, but no cheese and pineapple!

we were doing it for our kids 25 years ago-Scotland

That's really interesting, I think round here they don't do drop off parties until around 6-7. At the first party I threw for DD (who is a Septemberbaby so the party was early in the school year), one parent dropped their kid off and for the life of me I couldn't remember which child it was. I was probably an over bearing host helping the kids at the buffet as I wasn't sure who I had agreed to look after.

Yes generational rather than cultural as a previous poster has noted but the games these days have more focus on everyone ‘winning’.. yawn.

I would be interested in whether ‘party bags’ are a UK thing.. glad they are generally less full of plastic crap these days ..

I’m a child of the 70s and cheese and pineapple on sticks were very much a thing at childhood parties-usually with a cheeky wee pickled onion too

Oh no! I think I made that faux par at this last party I went to! I hadn't even thought I was wrong, I just thought the hosts were running behind and it was lucky so many people were running late.

I went to my sisters baby shower a couple of weeks ago and she had cheese, cocktail sausage and pickled onion on a stick and I had about four, they were amazing 😅

Germany
I have never heard of pineapple and cheese but we do grapes and cheese, silver foil hedgehogs used to be popular, too, but haven't seen one for ages.
Whole class parties are very unusual.
Ages 3-5 usually at some softplay location or at home, with parents who can eat the leftovers of the obligatory chicken nuggets, fries and muffins and are treated to coffee.

Then it changes to any variation of playing soccer. For the boys. No idea what the girls are up to, strict separation starts at that time 😂. Now my son is 10 and the classical parties start. Rumour has it that girls sometimes visit those, too!

Nor me after seeing the blood when one child decided to stick the cocktail stick up another childs nose. Nearly 40 years later I still feel a bit traumatised.

Same. My child had one last year and we went to one last weekend.
very common!

It really needs to be stuck into a foil covered grapefruit for the full effect!

I think I’m going to make one for the bank holiday weekend. Just for the hell of it!

Never seen cheese and pineapple on a stick!

Re: a PP, I only ever recall seeing presents opened during the party, never kept aside for later. I only ever heard of that happening once, with a British-Indian girl, but that was second-hand.

The thing that surprised me in the UK was the party bags.

Do other countries do something else instead of party bags? I find it such a good way to indicate its time to leave.

I went to a 50th a week or so ago that featured a C&P hedgehog. It was delish.
And practically every party my DD went to in the first couple of years of primary featured a bouncy castle in a hall.

We lived in a deprived area in the UK when my kids were at primary school. No one had birthday parties - both kids had friends (dd was very popular) but they went to one school friend party between them during the whole of primary school (not counting parties of friends from church and outside the area). We did parties at home every year though - pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey etc and standard party food. They both had one party each in a church hall with a bouncy castle too.

Yes I thought that it would, I just meant that I'd not given much thought as to what those differences would be and was wondering if anyone had any good examples as I found it an interesting thought.

My partner is Irish and he was astonished to learn that the birthday cake is often given to you as you leave, rather than eaten during the party (in England). It really bothers him.

I was just about to post this! You beat me to it! It’s bloody mental.

I’m a 70s child and even back then I thought the cheese and pineapple was fucking weird. Cheese, yes. Pineapple, lovely. Together? Just no.

I lived in the states and kids parties were pretty much the same as here - pizza and snacks, kids running around, it might be a bbq where parents are invited to stay but just the same hyper squeal-fest and multi coloured food.

In my country of origin:

You don’t show up at the time stated on the invitation. Usually 30 mins later guests start arriving.

Food is (was?) a mix of sandwiches / finger foods like sausages or nuggets / pizza / lots and lots and lots of crisps.

Birthday cake is cut, shared and eaten at the party. After many years, I still don’t understand why England doesn’t do this. Surely the point of the cake is for people to gather around it as the candles are blown, and then to enjoy it together. Would you send wedding guests home with slices of wedding cake in a soggy napkin too?

After cake is eaten, present are opened, and it’s rude not to do this before your guests leave. This is what usually marks the end of a birthday party.

No such thing as party bags. We have piñatas and sometimes there are little bags of haribos or crisps in them that you take home if they’ve somehow made it to the end of the party un-devoured.

Would you send wedding guests home with slices of wedding cake in a soggy napkin too?

@RobinHood19

Yes, yes we would!

The birthday cake being given away at the end used to be the party bag. You'd get sent home with some in a napkin. I think the idea was to share some with siblings who hadn't attended.

We’re not British, but DS was born in London and had all his birthdays in a midlands village till the age of eight. All whole-class parties for the first few years, mostly either soft play or village hall but later, when fewer children were invited, also things like trampoline parks, go-karting, pottery parties, house parties etc. Food at village hall/home parties were cheese and jam sandwiches, (ignored) carrot and cucumber chunks, party rings, marshmallows, iced gems, crisps, mini-pizzas.

I remember posting little pieces of my wedding cake to people who hadn't been able to attend. There were special little wedding cake boxes 😂